Well I Had A Fright!

The back of my yard caught on fire. I think it was kids who started it. Luckily it missed the greenhouse and I caught it before it got too far. With the wind we are having, if I hadn't of seen it when I did, it could have been a real disaster. Took the firefighters an hour to get all the hot spots. What makes it such a mess was that a resin table with chairs I use for potting was totally melted. There is a large puddle of melted resin. It also melted most of my plastic pots inside the shed. The firefighters kicked in the doors. Guess I won't be winter sowing this weekend.

X





This message was edited Dec 31, 2008 5:40 PM

Oh no! How awful. But, phew! Glad you caught it in time. Our neighbors set our pasture on fire a few years ago, that was fun. Not!

Thank goodness you and your home are OK. I wonder if it wasn't kids with firecrackers. It is New Years and this is the time of year when those darn firecrackers are flying and starting fires all over the place. What a stupid, stupid tradition that is.

I was working on my computer and got up to get a sweater and when I walked by the kitchen and looked out that is when I saw it. About a half hour earlier I had chased some kids away who were fossil hunting in a drainage ditch that runs behind my house. I'm always chasing people out of there because they dig along the side of the ditch under trees undermining the area.

I just found out a while ago that the fire department reported it as a leaf burn that got away from me. I wasn't burning leaves and would never even consider it with it being as windy as it was. I was a volunteer firefighter when I lived in north florida, so I know better.

At this very moment the idiot teens next door have started a huge bon fire in their backyard, burning everything they can get their hands on, jumping over it and throwing handfuls of cherry bombs into it.

X

Yikes, I know you won't get any sleep tonight. Be careful.

Xeran: So glad you and your GH are okay. What a horrible way to end the year, but better than beginning the new year, I hope. Kids today are such idiots. Can't believe we've raised a generation of such morons as most of them are. There are exceptions, I know, but so many seem to be clueless to anything dealing with common sense.

Lol, well every generation things the next generation are idiots. Who the real idiot is, is the state of SC in which fireworks .. from firecrackers to cherry bombs, rockets and even those huge mortar ones that explode in the air like you see at fireworks shows are legal. I'm thinking they threw firecrackers or cherry bombs onto the table which had dry pine straw all over it. That is probably what started it.

X

Thank the Lord that your house did not burn down. I would have reported the bonfire, sorry, that means that there is likely no supervision and if it is windy at all it can get away.

My name of pyromomma is well-deserved. I come from a long line of fireworks lovers and hubby and I knew right away that it needed rules because the kids would not know how to handle them (and they would whether we wanted them to or not).

So we have a huge Cul-de-sac fireworks display from 9-12:30 (at the latest) every year on New Years and July 4 - we have hoses, buckets of water to dispose of fireworks, a strict "No Booze or Horseplay" policy for the event and all the teens in the neighborhood can come and play. They usually get extra little sparklers for the little kids and are extremely good about supervising each other.
Of course my husband and I are there and we pop out and keep "serving food" (keeping an eye) and overseeing them, but the kids all know that they will be sent home if there is even a hint of a problem (I am a retired school teacher and they know that I love kids but will come down like a ton of bricks and am not afraid to bring their parents into it or the police if I have to - never had to- I have a really good Teacher Stink-eye that I use and that usually cows even the most rambunctious kid).
My boys are now 23 and 19 and they are the ones that supervise the other younger kids - so funny to hear my words coming out of their mouths ... LOL
One of the BIG rules is nothing in the air if there is wind. Last night it was windy until about 7, then it calmed down - I even have a windsock up to use as a gauge, and the kids respect it (especially after they set the neighbor's azalea bed on fire one year - no damage to the shrubs, just burning pine straw, but it made a believer out of them and is still used as the "hey, don't do that- remember when we nearly burned down the Rosebrock house?" even though it happened 12 years ago

One of my best friends when I was in high school lost a hand because he and his buddies were drinking at a lake on Senior Skip Day and (being the 1960s and before all the rules and safety regs were enacted) they were throwing fireworks that were the equiv. of 1/4 stick of TNT into the lake - One kid fumbled one and Fraz tried to grab it and toss it away from the group - he was about 2 seconds short of a safe throw and he lost his hand at the wrist. I had him talk to my kids when I was home visiting one year - really brought home the safety aspect of it.

Just like anything else, there are unsafe ways of doing anything - teach them the safe way and there is a chance that they will remember it.

But the teens next door to you are likely like most teens - they do not have a brain in their head and what they do have is focused on girls, cars, or showing off in front of their buddies. I work with lots of kids and there are wonderful ones out there. But there will always be some yahoos.

Frankly, I am surprised that I never ended up hurt permanently or in jail with some of the stupid risky stuff that I did when I was young. What' the quote? " A Man (or woman, too) has got to know his limitations".

Whew .. I've spent the whole day emptying out the shed .. I've lost almost all my large black plastic pots and over half of the other sizes. That really hurts. I've got some people coming tomorrow morning to haul away the shed (gotta love Craigs List. Put up a notice in Free for the shed and got 4 hits within 10 minutes of it being posted). My brother is coming on Saturday to help me put up a new one.

Melted plastic really stinks.

X

Man, for that fire to do that to your pots in the shed it must have been really hot. That is so sad and maddening. You are so fortunate that nothing more was destroyed. Perhaps check with your homeowners insurance, it may qualify as vandalism?
My local Woodleys Garden Center has a place where people bring pots to recycle - perhaps you can call a g. center near you and they might be able to give you some?
And certainly use Craigs List to get more pots, it is a great resource.
And folks definitely watch it!

Caution, though: Do not let anyone who answers your CL post to come into your house- A friend of mine on the west coast had her house cased for a burglary when someone came to a garage sale that she held.

My prayers are with you, X, hope that you can get things under control. I am doing my Wintersowing next week, and I will be happy to share plants with you later in the spring.

Lorie in Columbia

Kids and fire, never a good mix. Just glad to hear your home and GH are OK. Sorry for the loss of your other property - I'd seriously want to track down the punks that did it. Good luck with the new shed.

Thanks for the kind thoughts Lorie. This is just setting me back a bit. I tend to thrive on adversity and get more done than when things are quietly chugging along. More plants I don't need. My poor greenhouse is stuffed. I think I'll just end up using 2ltr soda bottles this year. I have a constant supply of those. Also trying to come up with an economical way to replace my "potting bench" (the table). I'm thinking saw horses and 3/4 inch plywood.

Ya gotta love Craigs list .. the old shed is gone. Some folks from Moncks Corner came this morning a 9am and had it down and on a trailer by 11. You're right about Craigs being a place for criminals .. I can't believe these people who off curb pickups .. publishing their address and telling people to come on over. Now THAT is really stupid. When I see that in my neighborhood, I go down to the perps house and politely give them a piece of my mind. I got a cell phone just for craigs (I offer a lot of things). That way people can't do a reverse phone look up and find my home address. When people do come to my house I make it a point to write down their car license number, make and model. Also, since I work mostly out of my house, I'm rarely gone for more than an hour, plus my neighbors are wonderful nosy neighbors. We watch out for each other and know who belongs and who doesn't.

Keonikale, I'd love to track em down, with my pitchfork. If I see them again, I'm definitely calling the cops and taking their picture instead of just chasing them off.

X

Just of interest how did the fire get in the shed??? One time I was driving around a field in later winter and apparently the muffle lit the field on fire. Thing was it burned so fast that anything big in it's way didn't get burnt. For that matter that field was the first one to green up in the spring and grew better than the other fields that year. Side note, not anyone I knows fields and I don't want to say why I was riding around them. LOL.

Just wondering how the flames ended up get inside so I can be on the look out for the same thing.

It was an old shed and the perimeter on the ground inside was wood .. The fire was actually hitting the side and the wood apparently caught too being old and dessicated .. just the heat on the side probably would have been enough to melt the pots. There was also about a foot of pine needles next to the shed as well.

X

ps.. did you get the seeds?

Here is a picture of the side that was in the fire.

Oh sorry, yes I did get the seeds thank you. You have the best packaging out there.

Pine needles did it. When those light on fire they burn very hot. I know how to get rid of pine tree waste, pretty much a weekly thing. I actually produced a fire ball that sucked the wind out of me once with pine "pieces". Another story but it looked like a good idea at the time.

Sigh, well I admit I am a lousy housekeeper when it comes to pine needles. The reason why they were so thick and heavy on the side was because once a month I would sweep off the needles on the roof of the shed with a rake. Now that the area has been "cleared" it won't be a chore to keep it clean.

Thanks. As you can see, the packet was very easy to make. I just use coin envelopes, Avery labels and their free program. Their software has templates for every label they sell. For teeny tiny seeds I put those in a small zip back which goes in the envelope.

http://www.avery.com/avery/en_us/Templates-%26-Software/Software/Avery-DesignPro-for-PC.htm

X

Cool, I might check that out.

After fussing with the MS Word and or Wordperfect label function for years I finally tried avery.com this year and have been kicking myself for not trying it sooner. It is intuitive and fast. Great idea for using it for seed packages X.

I love it and cant live without it!

For mine I use the Staples #1 coin envelopes and the Avery 8163 labels.

X

Way cool and ever so professional! You know, some of the California DG'ers were contacted by a seed company and their photos were purchased for catalogs. Maybe your seed packets will be seen by the right people and pcked up.

Thanks! I decided to put the name on the back to save time having to turn seed packets over, lol .. lazy I guess. That would be really neat if someone wanted to buy my pictures.

X